Morvan Wins Round Robin In Chicago Match Cup

Chicago Match Race

At #5 in the world rankings, top-seed Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) and his team have come through on top of the heap at the conclusion of Round Robin racing in the ISAF Grade 1 Chicago Match Cup.

But his climb to the top was not easy, as his eight wins was matched by eight wins earned by Phil Robertson (NZL) and Keith Swinton (AUS), with tie-breaks determining them to be in second and third place, respectively, going into tomorrow's Quarter Final knock-out series.

Racing today off of downtown Chicago's Navy Pier varied from slow and laborious to fast and furious, as an approaching cold front accelerated the southwesterly breeze from 6 to nearly 20 knots by day's end. One casualty of the strong breeze was the spinnaker of Simone Ferrarese (ITA), who was luffed hard on the final downwind leg of his close match with rival Bill Hardesty (USA) in the Repechage Round that was held to determine the top two of the 7th-12th placed finishers from the first Round Robin.

Hardesty managed to get through this round with CMRC founder Don Wilson (USA) to advance to the Quarter Finals, where Hardesty was chosen by Robertson in tomorrow's first-to-three point series, and Wilson will meet Morvan. The remaining two pairs will be Swinton meeting Corbett, and Alvaro Marinho (POR) meeting yesterday's series leader Taylor Canfield (ISV).

In the Consolation round to determine 9-12th places, ninth placed Sally Barkow has chosen to race fellow US Olympic aspirant Genny Tulloch, while their Olympic coach Dave Perry (USA) will meet Ferrarese to sail in a one-race knock-out series. Winners of each pair will meet each other to determine 9th place, while the losers will race to determine 11th place.